RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Brazil's state-run oil
company, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, received a license
to start operating its long-delayed and over-budget RNEST, or
"Abreu e Lima," refinery in the northeast of the country, the
Pernambuco-state environmental agency said on Monday.

The license limits RNEST to 45,000 barrels a day (bpd) of
crude capacity at the first of two planned 115,000 bpd
processing "trains." The oil used will have to be of a
relatively high grade and contain very little sulfur.

The CPRH, the environmental authority in Brazil's Pernambuco
state, wants to be sure equipment to control oxides of sulfur,
carbon, nitrogen and other toxic emissions are working properly
before allowing an increase in production or the use of heavier
and dirtier crude oil.

And even if it starts up this month, RNEST is unlikely to
deliver fuel to the Brazilian market until early 2015, four
years behind schedule, according to a fuel-market source with
direct knowledge of fuel-distribution plans at Petrobras, as the
oil company is known.